I Love Free Software +++ Public authorities in Fediverse

Wed Feb 8 12:58:49 UTC 2023

 = I Love Free Software +++ Public authorities in Fediverse =

[ Lexojeni online: https://fsfe.org/news/nl/nl-202302.sq.html ]

In this issue we invite public institutions to join free, decentralised
social networks. Watch our info-session on German municipalities using
Free Software. An FSFE volunteer doubts the reliability of AI-generated
text. I Love Free Software Day is just around the corner. Celebrate with
us!

 === I Love Free Software Day ===

We know you love Free Software. We do too. Think of the program that
means the most for you, or one that positively surprised you this year.
Share a ‘thank you’ message on the 14th of February with #ilovefs to
show your appreciation to its contributors. We celebrate ‘I Love Free
Software Day’ with events too. Join us here [1]:

- 🇩🇪 Germany - Berlin, Frankfurt a.M., Bonn, Hamburg

- 🇬🇷 Greece - Thessaloniki

- 🇮🇹 Italy - online, Merano

- 🇳🇱 Netherlands - Arnhem

- 🇨🇭 Switzerland - Zurich

 === Invite public bodies to the Fediverse ===

If public bodies are on social networks they should also talk with
Fediverse users [2]. FediGov, the campaign of the FSFE’s Swiss country
team and GNU/Linux.ch, asks public bodies to use Mastodon, Pixelfeld and
Peertube. Join the campaign and demand that your public institutions use
ethical communication channels. The European Commission [3] and several
EU public institutions [4] are already on Mastodon.

 === Video and mailing list on German municipalities ===

Dortmund is opening a new chapter in Free Software governance and
inspiring municipalities across Germany. The recording of the dedicated
event we hosted on 11 January 2023 is now online [5]. Are you interested
in Free Software and working in a municipal administration or in
politics? Join our new mailing list [6] to exchange information about
Free Software in local institutions!

 === A word from the Planet ===

Watermarks that can verify whether a text was produced using AI, the
provision of sources that led to the output of the text, or the count of
back-references to a page can increase trust in AI- generated texts,
according to FSFE suporter Vincent Lequertier [7]. You can follow the
thoughts of members of the FSFE community in our Planet [8].

 === Past events ===

- Last weekend we were at FOSDEM 2023 [9] with a booth and various
  talks.

- We have held several Upcycling Android workshops and now it is your
  turn! Do you want to organise a workshop and teach others how to flash
  phones? Check out our train the trainers workshop [10]. Marvin, one of
  the speakers, said in a recent interview that despite the
  imperfections so far, GNU/Linux systems on phones have the highest
  potential to extend the life of devices [11] without running into
  security problems.

- Raul Masu presented ‘Public Money? Public Code!’ at LibreItalia
  Conference in Empoli in December 2022.

 === Groups ===

*Germany*: The FSFE local group in Bonn [12] met online on 9 January.
The group discussed how to make large amounts of data (JSONs) searchable
in a browser and how to integrate Free Software Text-To-Speech into a
blog. The question of coding without a 'real' computer led to a brief
look at Android IDEs for mobile app development. Kilux and Chemnitzer
Linux Tage might be good opportunities to meet besides FrOScon. The
group is also interested in free musical instruments, this time
featuring an opentheremin. Meanwhile, the FSFE local group in Berlin
[13] was discussing with the youth Free Software in schools and the
benefits of the AlekSIS [14] system.

*Greece*: In January the group discussed practices about translating
Free Software into Greek [15]. The group shared collaborative
translation platforms and glossaries.

*Netherlands*: The government released the code of DigiD, the identity
verification app. This great news comes after some months of advocacy by
the team. This victory was therefore the main topic of the last monthly
meeting, in January [16].

*Switzerland*: After a successful launch of the FediGov campaign, the
Zurich group discussed next steps [17]. Creating a Mastodon instance for
public institutions in Switzerland or contacting data protection
officers are ongoing ideas.

*Women*: In January the FSFE Women group discussed the Python tools
Conda, Poetry, and mypy [18].

*Translators*: 337 FSFE translations in 2022! Our exceptional
translators team [19] has created 337 new files in 2022. The leader is
Italian with 120 new pages, followed by Dutch, German, Spanish, and
Portuguese. Get involved by proofreading or translating our material.

 == Contribute to our Newsletter ==

If you would like to share any thoughts, pictures, or news, please send
them to us. As always, the address is newsletter at fsfe.org. We're looking
forward to hearing from you! If you also want to support us and our
work, join our community and support us with a donation or a monthly
contribution [20]. Thanks to our community and all the volunteers,
supporters, and donors who make our work possible. And thanks to our
translators, who enable you to read this newsletter in your native
languages.

Your editor, Fani Partsafyllidou

Discuss this [21]

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  1: https://fsfe.org/news/2023/news-20230126-01.sq.html
  2: https://fsfe.org/news/2023/news-20230109-01.sq.html
  3: https://social.network.europa.eu/@EU_Commission
  4: https://social.network.europa.eu/directory
  5: https://media.fsfe.org/w/n8e8zKHjMHukYmzb4pEWJQ
  6: https://fsfe.org/news/2023/news-20230119-01.sq.html
  7: https://vl8r.eu/posts/2023/01/29/artificial-intelligence-is-not-willing-to-be-correct/
  8: https://planet.fsfe.org/
  9: https://fsfe.org/news/2023/news-20230123-01.sq.html
 10: https://media.fsfe.org/w/uZZYCA31SzTT5bMpNaDzz3
 11: https://www.c-radar.de/2022/12/c-radar-dezember-2022-android-alternativen-hacking-in-parallel/
 12: https://wiki.fsfe.org/LocalGroups/Bonn
 13: https://wiki.fsfe.org/LocalGroups/Berlin
 14: https://aleksis.org/
 15: https://wiki.fsfe.org/LocalGroups/Greece/2023-01-meeting
 16: https://wiki.fsfe.org/Events/Netherlands/2023-01-18
 17: https://wiki.fsfe.org/Events/Zurich/2023-01-19
 18: https://wiki.fsfe.org/Teams/Women/Notes
 19: https://wiki.fsfe.org/Teams/Translators
 20: https://my.fsfe.org/donate?referrer=newsletter
 21: https://community.fsfe.org/t/989